


Happy Acceptance Day!

by InfaWrit10



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Any ship or no ship, Gen, Happy Ending, Kiiiind of angsty in the beginning but nothing too bad, it’s your choice, there if you squint but not if you don’t want it to be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:07:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23164474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InfaWrit10/pseuds/InfaWrit10
Summary: In the aftermath of telling Thomas about his past, Virgil contemplates his current situation, and if his friendship with the Light Sides is built to last.Seeing how down he’s been lately, Virgil’s fellow Light Sides attempt to make him feel better by commemorating a special day in their shared history.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 33





	Happy Acceptance Day!

**Author's Note:**

> Two. Two new fandoms on my list of things I post for. Ah-ah-ah.
> 
> It’s so great to add yet ANOTHER fandom to my archive posting history! I am ecstatic to finally post for this lovely little web series that I’ve just stumbled on and totally adore. If you like my work, I have more Sanders Sides content coming down the pipe within the next few months, so keep an eye out ;)

Virgil sat perched on the kitchen counter, legs dangling as he scrolled through tumblr, the ultimate distraction it was.

_ “Virgil, despite his best efforts, could never stop being the bad guy.” _

Virgil cringed, shutting his eyes tight against the words scraping at the walls of his brain.

tumblr failed him.

He held the phone just tightly enough to keep it from slipping out of his grasp, the back of his hand resting in his lap.

He was one of the dark sides. Despite what Logan said, he would always be one of them. No matter how much maturity, no matter how much growth, he would always,  _ always _ act out of impulse, and his impulses were tied to not-good things.

_ He _ was a not-good thing. He was Anxiety. He was the one who brooded in a corner until he could pounce on an opportunity to bring the mood down, or kill it entirely.

As much as he longed for it, he wasn’t something that could ever be entirely integrated into something positive. Sure, he had his moments, but were they ever enough to classify him as a good guy? And why did he try so hard to hold onto an edgy persona, to be something intimidating, if he desperately wanted to be someone who’s acceptable?

_ It’s better to try to be scary so you don’t have to worry about going too far, about accidentally petrifying the ones you love. _

Virgil stiffened.

The word “love” was still an odd thing to tiptoe around; he knew that he loved the other sides, and him loving Thomas was obviously a given, but the prospect of saying it out loud was unfairly awkward, and way too forward. Something told him it always would be.

_ Because you’re  _ not one of them,  _ you could  _ never  _ be one of them. _

With a click, his teeth clacked into each other. The white curve of his fingernail was in his mouth, detached from the rest of the nail.

He hadn’t realized…

Regretfully, he slid off the counter, and spat the remnant of his racing thoughts into the trash.

Just as he was about to start picking at the uneven remnants on his nail, Patton and Roman skidded into the doorway. They tooted noisemakers with obnoxious blows, and Virgil was assaulted by the sudden roars in his silent bubble.

He shouted before he could catch himself, and threw his hood over his head.

“What the hell are you guys doing?!” Virgil shouted tensely.

“Happy Light Side Day!” Patton exclaimed.

Virgil’s gaze confusedly darted around. “Happy… what?”

“Light Side Day, you all-American reject!” Roman confirmed, unhelpfully.

Logan elbowed him, and used Roman’s offended jerk to the side—along with the melodramatic noises that accompanied it—to move into the room.

“Allow me to shed some light on this new holiday.”

“Oh, good one, Logan!”

Logan glared subtly at Patton. “Not intentional. Never intentional.” His eyes flicked back to Virgil. “As I was saying: Today is July fifteenth, which means it has officially been three years since our two-part Accepting Anxiety arc in Sanders Sides. In light of our—“

“All right, now I  _ know _ you’re doing this on purpose—“

“—I'm ignoring you—of our recent discovery of this fact, Roman, Patton and I have decided to commemorate the day you became ‘one of us,’ as it were.”

Virgil’s eyes widened slightly, stunned yet still—naturally—skeptical.

“To celebrate your acceptance into our fam-I-L-Y!” Patton beamed, bursting with happiness.

_ All right, so this was his idea,  _ Virgil deduced.  _ Okay. _

“This is A Day to Remember your New Found Glory, compadre!” Roman shouted.

Virgil eyed Roman as he did in every rare moment where the princely side genuinely impressed him. “Wow… you’re trying  _ so _ hard.”

Roman took an indignant breath in preparation to whine, and Virgil put up his hand to placate him. “I appreciate it, I swear.”

Eyes soft, Patton took a tone of sincerity. “We’ve seen that you’ve been feeling a little down lately, and we just wanted to let you know how much you mean to us. We wanted to remind you that… we accept you, Virge.”

Virgil disbelievingly blinked at him before casting his gaze to the floor.

“But… guys…” Virgil huffed. “I feel like… like you guys are just…  _ blindly _ accepting me. That you’re just… paying no mind to the stuff I used to put you all through, what I used to put  _ Thomas _ through. Like… Do you guys really understand what you’ve gotten yourselves into? I’ll never be a true ‘light side.’ I’m rooted in fear. I’m hard-wired to believe that there’s a negative side to everything, and you guys want  _ that _ in your little circle of positivity?”

“Of course,” Patton said, no hesitation, which subsequently blew Virgil away.

Logan joined him. “Virgil, you recount these events as if we weren’t there to witness them. We know what you’ve done, and yet we accept you anyway.”

“We accept your past and present, and we embrace your future,” Roman supplied, an accompanying hand gesture toward Virgil rolling forth out of habit.

Virgil’s mouth twitched, but he held it down. If he didn’t, then he might smile, panic and/or cry, and he didn’t know what would come out, or in what combination.

“People evolve. If there is any evidence of that, I believe that lies with you,” Logan stated, giving him a fond smile.

The corked popped off the bottle almost as soon as Virgil had attempted to seal himself off, and despite himself, he quirked a small, crooked smile. Shockingly, the Mind Palace was still standing, the asteroids tumbling around in space had not yet come to eliminate them all, and the world did not end.

“Also, in studies performed by behavioral s—“

“Yeah, okay, you made your point, Specs,” Roman waved him off.

Virgil eyed them all, a promising idea taking shape. “Okay. If we’re actually going to do this, can I change the name?”

Roman made to protest, but Patton spoke over him. “What would you wanna change it to, kiddo?”

“Light Sides kinda… doesn’t describe us, does it? Well, I mean, maybe Patton—“

“And me!” Roman cried.

“Can it, Bitchmas, don’t think I didn't see that.” Virgil had been waiting since last Christmas to use that.

“It was a blooper for a reason!”

“You still said it.”

“Regardless of our compatriot’s innocence,” Logan interrupted, “what would you think would be a fitting substitute for the name?”

“We could call it Virgil Day! I mean, his day, his name, right?” Patton innocently interjected.

Virgil immediately shot it down. “Please, do not.”

“Or Rebirth Day!” Roman suggested. When he was met with questionable looks from his fellow sides, he seemed to deflate a little. “Ya know, because you were… reborn once you were officially a part of the group?”

Virgil scanned the faces of his friends as he shrugged his shoulders and turned his palms to the ceiling. “What about ‘Acceptance Day?’”

The other sides glanced at each other, wondering how they all seemed to miss that.

“Oooh.”

“Yes, that would be simpler…”

“It does kind of have a better ring to it, admittedly…”

Virgil continued, breaking up their confused mumblings, “That way, we all can celebrate it, but it’s still got that little call-back to the video that you guys wanted.”

“Look at Virgil coming through with a clever name for his own holiday,” Roman commended him, having noted how Virgil once said that creativity was “not his department.”

Virgil smirked smugly and shrugged. “I have my moments.” A beat. Then, “So, is anyone gonna tell me what this holiday entails? Like, what you actually do on this holiday?”

Again, the sides exchanged panicked glances.

Patton, trying to rescue things in the only way he knew how, asked, “Would you  _ accept _ a group hug as a tradition for the new holiday?”

Virgil ping-ponged his gaze between Logan and Roman, who seemed just about as into the idea as Virgil was. “These guys don’t seem like they would—“

At the sight of Patton’s fallen face, Thomas’s words rang in his head.  _ He’s got a lot of love to give. _

Virgil took a breath to give himself strength. “But…” he faltered. “I will accept a hug from… you, Patton.”

Patton squeaked and almost bowled Virgil over.

Virgil instantly stiffened, not sure if he liked this at all or not, but decided that he might as well give it an honest shot if he was this far in already. Hesitantly, he lightly encircled Patton in his arms, and slowly pressed the lower part of his face into the cardigan Patton always wore about his neck.

“... This is so wholesome. Are you seeing this?” Roman commented.

“This is very pleasant, I—think. Yes,” Logan answered, awkwardly.

“Patton, I can’t breathe,” Virgil rasped.

Patton released him with a few pats to his shoulder.

When Virgil caught his breath and looked up, he saw Roman standing with a chocolate cupcake with purple frosting and matching lavender liner. Poking out the top of the frosting was a lit, purple-and-white-striped candle.

“Where’d that come from?” Virgil asked, pointing to the cupcake.

“I conjured it, don’t worry about it,” Roman answered, but there was a falseness in his wide princely grin that told Virgil to worry.

“Okay…?” Virgil commented as Roman set it on the kitchen counter.

The sides awkwardly stood around.

“So do we  _ sing, _ or…?” Roman wondered aloud.

“What would we sing? It’s not like we can sing Happy Birthday; it’s not Thomas’s or Virgil’s birthday, and those are holidays entirely removed from this one,” Logan reminded everyone.

“No singing,” Virgil announced, hands up. “Just… let’s not.”

“Okay. Then Virgil, I think it might be time to blow out that candle!” Patton suggested, with his usual amount of dad-like mannerisms.

Virgil moved to stand in front of the small cake on the counter, and… stared at it.

“Do I… make a wish, or something?”

“Whatever you want,” Logan supplied. “It’s your holiday, after all.”

Virgil returned his eyes to the cupcake, then gave a small nod. “Okay…”

He shut his eyes.

_ I want to be better this year. Let me do even better than all my progress thus far. I wanna be good enough for them. I want to be good enough for… myself. _

He took a deep breath, then blew out the candle.

The other sides cheered in their own ways, except Logan who merely clapped.

Virgil ducked into himself slightly, blushing under all the attention.

… And quickly, the candle relit.

Roman snorted.

Logan and Patton were not amused.

Patton leveled him with a proper Dad Look, the ‘I’m not mad, just disappointed’ attitude palpable in the crease between his eyes.

“Really, Roman?” Logan scolded.

“What?! How  _ dare _ you accuse me of—!”

“We know it was you, you were incredibly indiscreet,” Logan pressed, adjusting his glasses.

And thus began the first bickering session of the day.

Virgil pulled up a chair and kicked his feet out in front of him, watching with an ever-widening grin. Sure, it made him a little uneasy when there was some kind of disagreement happening, but this wasn’t over anything serious, and mostly, it just told Virgil that some things would never change. There would always be something that kept them poised to check the others, and something that would always bring them back to one another. There would always be a problem, but there would always be room for him at the discussion table. There would always be flaws present in every one of them, but there would always be forgiveness and acceptance in those who truly cared about him.

Those facts brought Virgil to a place of such immense joy, such blissful calm, that the entirety of his metaphysical being didn’t know how to handle the sudden influx of happy feelings. Somehow, he wound up laughing.

When he heard the discussion fade to silence, he looked up.

Everyone was staring at him.

His face felt hot.

“What?”

No response.

He thought they were all staring at him because it was weird he was laughing to himself, but really, it was just the fact that the sides had never heard Virgil laugh before. It was so stunning to them that Virgil  _ could _ be that happy. In that moment, they all—even Logan—realized just how rewarding it was to make him that happy.

The last of Virgil’s overflowing energy flew out of him in a forceful cough.

Virgil hopped off the chair. “If that’s all, I think I’m gonna head to my room for a while…”

He felt the other sides’ gazes on his hot neck as he made his way towards the doorway.

His fingers latched onto the doorway before he realized he’d stopped. He took a breath, then slowly turned. “Hey, uh… guys?”

They all acknowledged him, but Virgil was so wrapped up with nerves that he hadn’t focused enough on what they’d said to internalize it.

Virgil shifted in his hoodie, the words bubbling up inside of him, making any sort of fidget uncomfortable.  _ No going back now. _

“I might… actually love you morons…” he mumbled.

Patton screamed. “Aaaaah! I love you, too!” In response, Virgil flinched and froze in time for Patton to hug him.

Patton tensed up and quickly asked, “I’m sorry, is this okay?”

Virgil half-assedly feigned annoyance, but his light smile gave him away. “Go ahead,” he permitted.

Logan and Roman merely stood taken aback, entirely bewildered.

Logan was the first to recover. “Thank you, Virgil.” He took a breath to cleanse himself of any complex emotions that might have been strong enough to take on his purely logical defenses. “Happy Acceptance Day.”

“Thanks, Lo,” Virgil replied, and the two exchanged smiles.

Patton pulled back from Virgil’s personal space to continue celebrating. “Ugh, this is so great! We really are a proper family now!” Patton huffed a happy sigh. “This was such a good idea, Roman!”

Roman’s expression of betrayal was immediate and loud.  _ “Patton,” _ he hissed.

“Wait,” Virgil said, catching up. “Roman, this was your idea?”

Roman, crossing his arms and pouting, chanced a glance at Virgil’s surprised look. “Oh, don’t look at me like that, you  _ know _ I'm making an effort to be nicer to you… Minus the cupcake thing earlier, I’m sorry, I just couldn’t resist.”

“Still though, this is… a little above and beyond.”

At Roman’s knee-jerk ‘no-one-appreciates-me’ scowl, Virgil continued. “That’s not a bad thing. I… really appreciate this.”

Virgil waited the half-second it took for Roman to visibly brighten up to say, “Thank you.”

Roman’s bravado kicked back in in no time. Puffing out his chest, he proclaimed, “All in a day’s work, my emo nightmare! Uh—!” Realizing that may have been rude—even though Virgil had always liked the nickname, and probably always would—Roman attempted to correct himself. “I mean…  _ friend… _ ” he trailed off with uncertainty.

Virgil subtly snorted. He then extended a fist between them.

Roman eyed it skeptically.

“Come on,” Virgil wheedled. “You made a holiday for me; I  _ know _ you like me enough for a simple fist bump.”

Roman sighed resignedly, then conceded. With a smirk, he bumped Virgil’s fist with his own. “Ah, your hands are so bony!”

“We have the same—!” On a frustrated exhale, Virgil mumbled, “Okay…” The ex-dark side huffed. “Yeah, definitely going to my room now. I take back everything I said.”

“No takesies backsies!” Patton exclaimed. “You know you love us.”

Virgil growled and grumbled then entire way as he sank down, but once in his room, he curled up contentedly on his bed. He found his eyes wandering over all his possessions with grateful eyes.

He was grateful for his existence, grateful for his journey that led him to the here and now, and grateful for the love he could finally—fearlessly—allow himself to enjoy.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! If you feel so inclined, don’t be afraid to drop me a line in the comments or hand me some kudos! I really appreciate them.


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